I read every evening this forum with much interest, especially help threads on textures, DTE, etc.. My problem is I have Susan Kitchen "Real World Bryce" but I have no prior training in computer graphics. I've muddled through first 400+ pages with varying degree of understanding but when I get to pg 407 "Mat Lab" it just goes beyond my knowledge base to quite make any sense of it. Is there any other source or tuts that can get me off first base. I've tried to read the section again as recently as two days ago and wind up just pushing buttons and moving sliders with no idea of what is happening. Help? Descriptions of components buttons, filter graphs, noise filters, etc mean little since this section presumes a knowledge of the fundamentals of pixal illumination. I know this question is too deep for a short answer but maybe someone can point to a good read or heck correspondence course. Tks for you patience

Message edited on: 05/04/2005 20:40

Another stupid question. I simplified a complex group of wireframes to show as box on a WIP using ctrl+b (windows) How do I get it back to more complex wireframe for detail tweaking?

For me, pushing buttons and moving sliders is how I learned,......but then again I'm more of a learn by doing type anyway. Probably not the way you'd want to learn some things,........you know, like learning to fly a fighter jet and such.

Attached Link: Meski's Anatomy of a Wall tutorial

Skiwillgee, I started out in much the same position as yourself nearly two years ago (I think, lose track of time ;) I also tried reading Susan Kitchen's chapter on the material editor and DTE from start to finish and knowing nothing about CG I would just get overloaded. It's an excellent and VERY comprehensive resource and the way I began to find worked with me was to read a bit of it, then mess with one of the tutorials online that included some material editor work (eg www.robinwood.com) then read a bit more of SK's book. Each time I would find mixing the theory with the doing would increase things that little step further. It's been a slow process and I'm still only just getting to grips with some aspects. I'm also going about it back to front as I find the DTE much easier to handle and understand than I do the ME (material editor). Another big influence in my ability to get even half way to what I want to do in texturing is Meski and his tutorials which seem to go right into my way of thinking. The attached link is to his splended 'Anatomy of a Wall' tutorial which I return to time and again and learn a little bit more each time. Short advice? Learn by doing as sackrat said. It's just too much to take in mentally (for me) and after a while I start to find I can fly it more by instinct than rational thought.

Kathye, I've been trying to follow that tut you linked to, only.... It says "Load the base texture from the download." And I can't find it when I try to load from... well, see image: I dunno how else you should "load" from

I just redownloaded and the download contains a file called "BaseWall.mat". I take the sentence you're referring to as meaning Import the BaseWall.mat to your preset library and apply it to the wall you made in the first stage of the tutorial. That's what I did anyway. Then your window you're marking in your screen shot will look like Meski's and like this here. I hope that clears up your confusion. It's a long time since I did this tutorial so I can't promise to be much help at the later stages particularly. Good luck

Kathye, Aha. NOW it makes sense, thanks.

Skillweegee, I'm not certain which parts you don't understand? Think of both the Materials Lab and the DTE as mixers. The Materials Lab mixes your channels, A through D, through a series of rendering options (Diffusion, Ambience, Reflection, etc.) The DTE merely mixes the channels themselves for Procedural (fractal) Textures, as opposed to image-based textures (like photos, for example), which do not go through the DTE at all. In the DTE there are three separate channels. The mixing modes determine how they react together to achieve the "Result", which is the bottom image. Filters determine how the math involved reacts to ITSELF, and phase does the same thing only in a different way. Filter and Phase options only affect that particular channel, although these changes will echo through your mixing modes (Multiply, Add, Subtract, Blend Slope), etc. Ask away, I don't pretend to be THE texturing master, but both the Mat Lab and the DTE are far from strangers to me...

Attached Link: DTE tutorial

Just found another one you might be interested in (while I was looking for something else actually) - this says it's based on Susan Kitchen's Brycetalks so might bear some resemblence to the way her books are written too. Just about to look at it myself as I've got myself more curious about materials again. :)

Thanks for that, Kathye.